Online privacy: overview and preliminary research

Abstract

Over the last decade using the Internet for online shopping, information browsing and searching as well as for online communication has become part of everyday life. Although the Internet technology has a lot of benefits for users, one of the most important disadvantages is related to the increasing capacity for users’ online activity surveillance. However, the users are increasingly becoming aware of online surveillance methods, which results in their increased concern for privacy protection. Numerous factors influence the way in which individuals perceive the level of privacy protection when they are online. This article provides a review of factors that influence the privacy perception of Internet users. Previous online privacy research related to e-business was predominantly focused on the dimension of information privacy and concerned with the way users’ personal information is collected, saved and used by an online company. This article’s main aim is to provide an overview of numerous Internet users’ privacy perception elements across various privacy dimensions as well as their potential categorization. In addition, considering that e-banking and online shopping are one of the most widely used e-services, an examination of online privacy perception of e-banking/online shopping users was performed.